▪ I. smithy, n.
(ˈsmɪðɪ)
Forms: α. 4 smiþi, 5 smyþi; 5 smythie, 5–6 -y, 6 -ye, smithee, 6–7 smithie, 7– smithy; 4 smeþi, smethi, smeþey, 5–7 smethey, 5–6 smethy, 7 smethie. β. Sc. and north. dial. 6–7 smydy, 8 smidy; 5–6 smyddy, 6–9 smiddie, 6– smiddy; 5 smede, smedye, 6 smedie, 5–7 smedy, 6 smeddy.
[ad. ON. smiðja (Icel. smiðja, Norw. smidja; MSw. smidhia, smidia, Sw. smedja, Da. smedie), = OE. smiððe: see smithe n.]
1. The workshop of a smith; a blacksmith's shop; = forge n. 2. Also occas., a portable forge.
| α c 1300 Cursor M. 23238 (Edin.), Als it war dintes of a stiþi Þat smiþis smitis in þair smiþi [Cott. smeþey, Gött. smethi]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 461/1 Smythy, fabricia. 1496 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 289 Item, for bering of xxx waw of irn fra the marchant buthis to Thom Barkaris smythy, xlv d. 1546 Yorks. Chantry Surv. (Surtees) 247 One cotage or smythye and a garthyne. 1562 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees, 1835) 207 The Smethey. One paire of bellowes [etc.]. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 512 In the smithies where brasse is made and wrought. 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met. xii. 390 His blazing Locks..hiss'd, like red hot Iron within the Smithy drown'd. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. 10 July, Finding the tools of the defunct, together with some coals, in the smithy. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. II. 486 It proved to be a moveable smithy, furnished with all tools and materials necessary for repairing arms and carriages. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 229 Not when I pass a smithy; for then the iron bars make a tremendous noise. |
| fig. 1865 Sat. Rev. 12 Aug. 204/1 The extent to which rivals in Paris, Liege, or Elberfield, were likely to supplant the great British smithy [Birmingham]. 1866 Kingsley Herew. vii, They hammered at each other in the devil's smithy. |
| β c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. i. v. 228 Quhar men war wirkand at a smedye [v.r. smyddy]. 1497 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 328 For tua laid of colis, in Melros, to the smyddy. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxxiii. 56 For smowking of the smydy. 1580 Reg. Privy Council Scot. III. 320 Item, in the smiddie, ane irne studie [etc.]. 1665 R. Brathwait Comment. Two Tales 50 Those antient Verses..That Scholar well deserves a Widdie, Who makes his Study of a Smiddie. 1786 Burns Twa Dogs 19 At Kirk or Market, Mill or Smiddie. 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 122 Like..a vice in a smiddy. 1899 Crockett Kit Kennedy 243 Kit had trysted with the orra-man to meet him at the smiddy. |
† b. = bloomery1.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1565 in West Antiq. Furness (1774) App. ix, The queen's majestie's woods..are like to fall into great decay..by reason of certain iron smithies there lately erected and demised. |
2. Smithcraft; smith-work.
rare.
| 1804 W. Taylor in Crit. Rev. III. 541 Important inventions; as that of clothing, of fire, of smithy, of foundery. 1855 J. R. Leifchild Cornwall 178 Details of the Expenses,..Smithy, Carpentry, and Sawing, {pstlg}1,701 19 0. |
3. attrib., as
smithy ashes,
smithy bellows,
smithy cur,
smithy dust,
smithy-fire,
smithy vice,
smithy work, etc.
| 1469–70 Durh. MS. Rolls (Surtees) 642 Le Smethyhouse infra Abbathiam. 1495 Naval Accs. Hen. VII (1896) 158 Smythy Bellowes. ij payer. 1523 Skelton Garl. Laurel 762 Lyke a smythy kur. 1556 Knaresborough Wills (Surtees) I. 73 My smithie geare. 1611 Cotgr., Escume de Mareschal, the refuse, or drosse of yron; smithie dust. 1669 Records Baron Crt. Stitchill (S.H.S.) 54 For smydy werke, one pund eight shillings. 1677 Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 241 Item for smiddy ashes, 1s. a 1837 Nicoll Poems, The Smith i, His grip was like a smiddy vice. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. iii. v. vi, Smithy-fires..for the manufacture of arms. |
4. Special combs.:
smithy-coals, a kind of small coal used by smiths;
smithy-coom (see
quot. 1855);
† smithy-craft, smith-craft, smith-work;
smithy-dander, a forge cinder;
smithy lime, a limestone layer of Aldstone Moor in Cumbria;
† smithy-man, an iron-smith;
† smithy-miln, a smithy in which the work is partly performed by water power;
smithy-slack,
slag, the shale or iron dust of a forge;
† smithy-water, the water in which a smith cools his heated irons.
| 1482 in Charters, etc. Edinb. (1871) 169 Of ilk chaldir of *smethy colis vi d. 1789 J. Williams Min. Kingd. I. 157 The smithy coal of Balmule and Rosebank. |
| 1611 Churchw. Acc. Pittington, etc. (Surtees) 161 Paide for beringe sand and *smethie come to the same lyme, xij d. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Smithycome or Smitticome, the smith's iron dust or sweepings mixed with hot pitch as an impervious composition for the tops of wooden sheds. |
| 1513 Douglas æneid viii. vii. 107 The mychty God of fyr..to his *smyddy craft and forge hym spedis. |
| 1828 Scott F.M. Perth iii, You cannot suppose that Harry Gow cares the value of a *smithy-dander for such a cub as yonder cat-a-mountain? |
| 1833–4 J. Phillips Geol. in Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VI. 585/2 *Smiddy lime. |
| a 1400 Isumbras 410 A *smethymane thus was he thore..And blewe thaire belyes bloo. 1533–4 Durh. Househ. Bk. (Surtees) 329 Cristofero Willey, le smedyman. |
| 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. 9 b, Cutlersmylnes, *smethymylnes & all suche other. |
| 1831 Holland Manuf. Metal I. 194 This larger mass being generally..imbedded in *smithy-slack. |
| 1837 J. T. Smith tr. Vicat's Mortars 1 Another looked upon *smithy slag and iron-dross as the finest ingredients. |
| c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 43 [The water] was blacker than *smythy water. |
Add:
[1.] c. [Said to have arisen through a misreading of Longfellow's line (
quot. 1839 below).] A blacksmith.
U.S.| [1839 Longfellow Poems (1848) 73 Under a spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands.] 1847 Graham's Mag. Apr. 262/1 Was he some Smithy, grim and old, Whose anvil iron changed to gold. 1900 Everybody's Mag. Jan. 36/2 The smithy and his mate opened their ‘establishment’ within a few hours of their arrival, and did a ‘roaring trade’. 1940 Miami Herald in Amer. Speech (1941) XVI. 152/2 Miami Smithy: Olin M. Berry doesn't stand under a spreading chestnut tree, as did Longfellow's village blacksmith, but he is an old hand at the rapidly disappearing trade of horse-shoeing. 1982 N.Y. Times 21 Nov. xi. 12/5 The main concern of a smithy is to make sure that his shoeing keeps a horse healthy. |
▪ II. smithy, v. (
ˈsmɪðɪ)
Also 3
smiðien, 5
smyþ-,
smyth-.
[f. smithy n. With the early examples cf. smith v.] 1. a. trans. To make or fashion by smithing; to forge or smith. Also
fig.| c 1205 Lay. 30749 Þe smið gon to smiðeȝe ane pic swiðe long. c 1386 Chaucer Miller's T. 576 (Lansd.), A smyþe..þat in his forge smyþeieþ plouhe hernays. |
| 1839 Bywater Sheffield Dial. 33, 1st. He moods t' blade... 3rd. Then he smithies it. 1892 Brooke E.E. Lit. II. 27 A famous coat of mail that Weland the great forgeman had smithied. 1910 J. Masefield Ballads & Poems 66 Until this case, this clogging mould, Be smithied all to kingly gold. 1929 A. Clarke Pilgrimage 19 Smithied in gloom the low day Had glowed upon the axle. |
b. To weld
together by forging.
| 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 185 In others only every other ring is riveted, the alternate ones being smithied together. |
2. intr. To practise smithing.
| 1733 L. Theobald in Works of Shakespeare VII. 96 To smithy, is, to perform the Work and Office of a Smith. 1866 G. W. Dasent Gisli 11 Gisli sat in the hall and smithied. |
Hence
ˈsmithied ppl. a.,
ˈsmithying vbl. n.| c 1449 Pecock Repr. ii. xviii. 256 An hamer forto make a knyf in smythiyng. 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 185 Each clincht ring grasps four smithied and..each smithied grasps four riveted. 1886 P. Robinson Teetotum Trees 142 To do a bit of smithying up at the forge. 1934 E. Blunden Challenge to Death 336 History's smithying should not disappear Without reverberation. |